41st  Congress,  )  SENATE,  i  Mis.  Doc. 

2d  Session.      S  i    No.  48. 


MEMORIAL 


AR01 499343 


C.  E.  MCI  AY. 

UF.MOXSTKATIXG 

Against  the  right  of  suffrage  being  granted  to  women. 


Fkbrl'aicy  10,  1970. — Referred  to  tbo  Committee  on  the  District  of  Colombia  and 

ordered,  to  be  printed. 


Presented  to  the  Committee  oil  the  District  of  Columbia,  by  Mrs.  C.  E. 
McKay,  of  Massachusetts. 

It  has  been  said  by  members  of  Congress  and  others,  that  the  answer 
to  the  agitating  question  of  woman  suffrage  depends  on  the  choice  of 
woman ;  that  when  a  majority  of  the  women  of  the  United  States  wish 
to  vote,  they  will  be  admitted  to  the  polls. 

Hitherto  the  discussion  of  the  subject,  so  far  as  women  are  concerned, 
has  been  chiefly  one  sided.  Xot  that  all  the  woman  talent  of  the  country 
would  be  found  with  the  advocates  of  woman  suffrage,  but  primarily 
because  a  large  majority  of  women  are  too  busy  with  their  legitimate 
duties  to  give  sufficient  attention  to  the  subject  to  become  its  outspoken 
opponents,  and  partly  because  many  intelligent,  thinking  women,  while 
they  would  deprecate  such  a  result  as  a  calamity,  have  not  believed  in 
its  possibility. 

I  therefore  beg  leave  respectfully  to  represent  to  this  honorable  body 
some  reasons  why  we  do  not  want  the  ballot ;  and  in  saying  that  we  do 
not  want  it,  I  believe  that  I  express  the  sentiment  of  a  large  proportion 
of  my  countrywomen. 

First,  then,  we  do  not  want  the  ballot,  because  it  lies  wholly  outside  of 
what  we  consider  our  appropriate  sphere  of  life  and  line  of  duty.  Were 
women  ten  times  wiser  than  men,  all  that  amount  of  wisdom  would  not 
be  too  much  for  their  daily  requirements  in  their  present  relations  to  the 
social  system,  for  the  proper  administration  of  household  affairs,  and 
the  suitable  training  of  those  wiio  are  to  become  the  men  and  women  of 
the  succeeding  generation. 

But  no  sooner  will  it  be  the  privilege  of  women  to  vote,  than  it  will 
become  their  duty  not  only  to  drop  a  slip  of  paper  into  the  ballot-box  a 
few  times  in  a  year,  but  to  make  themselves  so  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  a  class  of  subjects  quite  foreign  to  their  tastes  and  ordinary  occu- 
pations as  to  be  able  to  cast  an  enlightened  aud  conscientious  vote. 

Thus  the  duties  involved  in  it  would  be  a  superadded  weight  to  the 
burden  already  in  most  cases  sufficiently  onerous.    Why,  therefore 


7*c 
mC 

2  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE.  -(YNb 

should  we  tempt  our  legislators  to  put  a  yoke  on  the  neck  of  women 
which  neither  our  mothers  nor  we  were  able  to  bear? 

But  our  greatest  reason  for  deprecating  universal  woman  suffrage  is, 
that  we  believe  it  would  imperil  the  safety  of  the  republic  by  an  im- 
mense increase  of  the  unintelligent  and  incompetent  vote. 

There  are  reasons  which  lie  dee])  in  the  nature  of  things,  arid  the  very 
constitution  of  the  race,  why,  among  the  masses  of  the  ignorant  and  un- 
cultivated, women  are  less  capable  than  men  of  forming  opinions  which 
would  lead  to  a  safe  exercise  of  the  elective,  franchise.  The  duties  and 
daily  labors  of  the  poor  man  lead  him  out  among  men,  where,  even  if 
he  cannot  read,  his  opinions  are  formed  by  observation  and  contact 
with  minds  superior  to  his  own.  But  how  can  the  poor  woman,  over- 
burdened with  the  care  of  her  children  and  the  daily  struggle  for  life, 
busy  all  day  in  the  kitchen,  standing  at  the  wash  tub,  form  any  correct 
opinion  as  to  who  shall  best  make  and  administer  the  law  which  she  can- 
not read,  and  guide  the  state,  the  significance  of  which  she  cannot 
comprehend  f  1  have  spent  several  years  in  close  contact  with  the  freed 
men  and  women  of  the  South,  and  I  believe  others  who  have  closely  ob- 
served them  will  bear  me  out  in  the  testimony,  that  the  poor  colored 
vouen  are  far  mm  e  ignorant  and  imbrutcd,  or,  as  they  express  it,  trifling, 
than  the  men.  This,  i  think,  is  also  true  of  the  poor  whites  ot  the 
South,  and  of  the  great  mass  of  ignorant  foreigners  which  everywhere 
throng  our  s-hoics  and  make  up  so  large  a  portion  of  our  population. 
The  admission  to  the  polls  of  2,(100,(100  of  colored  men,  just  redeemed 
from  slavery,  was  a  matter  of  justice  as  well  as  a  political  necessity,  but 
it  was  not  accomplished  without  the  gravest  anxiety  as  to  the  result. 
Why  should  the  danger  be  increased  by  the  addition  of  the  same  or 
nearly  the  same  number  of  colored  women !  Ignorant  women  may 
indeed  be  in  their  narrow  sphere  models  of  virtue,  accomplishing  all  that 
Pro\  idence  and  nature  demand  of  them;  but  admitted  tothe  polls,  the\ 
would  only  be  so  much  new  material  for  the  manipulation  of  intriguing 
wire  pullers  and  crafty  politicians,  to  say  nothing  of  the  new  lever  which 
would  thus  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Catholic  priesthood.  Yet  some 
of  the  most  gifted  minds  of  the  country  are  demanding  that  to  them  shall 
be  committed  the  sacred  right  and  privilege  of  suffrage!  How  can  they? 
Is  it  urged  that  the  right  of  suffrage  conferred  on  woman  would  stimu- 
late her  to  higher  intellectual  attainments  in  order  that  she,  may  more 
intelligently  exercise  that  right?  The  argument,  as  applied  to  general 
suffrage,  admits  of  a  doubt ;  but  if  granted,  we  would  say  that  the  safety 
of  the  whole  is  of  more  importance  than  the  elevation  of  a  part  ;  that 
it.  is  never  wise  to  risk  killing  the  patient  in  order  to  cure  the  disease: 
that  the  preservation  of  the  republic  is  the  first  and  greatest  interest  of 
all  men  and  women,  and  that  nothing  could  be  a  permanent  advantage 
to  woman  which  would  be  a  disadvantage  to  the.  body  politic. 

As  to  the  Question  of  rauuneiative  labor  for  women,  Ave  gladly  con- 
cede that  much  has  been  done  by  the  advocates  of  "  women's  rights" 
to  educate  public  opinion  on  that  subject,  and  to  bring  it  to  a  proper 
sense  of  the  needs  and  deserts  of  women.  We  heartily  thank  them  for 
this,  and  believe  that  great  progress  can  be  made  in  that  direction  with- 
out incurring  the  risk  of  overturning  the  present  foundations  of  society. 

Already  the  pulpit,  the  press,  the  stage,  the  lecture  platform,  the  med- 
ical profession,  as  well  as  the  teachers  chair,  are  open  to  her.  Let.  her 
to  whom  Providence  has  not  committed  the  more  important  and  digni- 
fied offices  of  wife  and  mother,  go  in  and  win  in  these  wide  fields  of 
activity  such  laurels  as  she  may.  Should  she  fail  here,  she.  will  find  that 
there  still  remains  much  land  to  he  possessed  in  the  more  common  and 
unambitious  walks  of  life. 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


3 


In  conclusion,  we  believe  that  the  country  is  at  present  in  no  condi- 
tion to  try  so  important  an  experiment.  If  so  unwished-for  a  reorgani- 
zation of  society  must  come,  we  pray  Heaven  that  it  may  at  least  bo  de- 
ferred until  the  results  of  the  past  decade  are  secured  ;  that  the  good 
ship  of  state  may  have  time  to  recover  itself  from  its  recent  encounters, 
to  trim  its  sails,  and  tauten  its  cordage,  before  it  plunges  into  another 
stormv  sea  of  excitement  and  contention. 

C.  E.  Mf'KAY. 


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